Baseball's All-Star Game is a hit with viewers

American League All-Star Mike Trout of the Angels gets a hit in last week’s Major League All-Star Game. Trout was named Most Valuable Player of the game, which was seen by 11.34 million viewers, its largest audience since 2010. ROB CARR , ROB CARR GETTY IMAGES

NIELSEN PRIME-TIME RATINGS

1. Major League Baseball All-Star Game, Fox, 11.34 million.

2. "America's Got Talent" (Tuesday), NBC, 8.53 million.

3. "Extant," CBS, 7.96 million.

4. "NCIS," CBS, 7.93 million.

5. "60 Minutes," CBS, 7.9 million.

6. "Under the Dome," CBS, 7.64 million.

7. "The Big Bang Theory," CBS, 7.1 million.

8. "The Bachelorette," ABC, 6.91 million.

9. "24: Live Another Day," Fox, 6.47 million.

10. "Unforgettable," CBS, 6.39 million.

11. "Big Brother" (Sunday), CBS, 6.27 million.

12. "Big Brother" (Wednesday), CBS, 6.22 million.

13. "NCIS: Los Angeles," CBS, 6.21 million.

14. "Blue Bloods," CBS, 6.19 million.

15. "Big Brother" (Thursday) CBS, 6.11 million.

16. "Dateline NBC," NBC, 6.07 million.

17. "Night Shift," NBC, 6.05 million.

18. "20/20," ABC, 5.97 million.

19. "America's Got Talent" (Wednesday, 8 p.m.), NBC, 5.93 million.

20. "The Big Bang Theory" (Monday, 9:30 p.m.), CBS, 5.81 million.

Fox's coverage of Major League Baseball’s All-Star Game drew its largest audience since 2010, topping last week's prime-time television ratings.

The American League's 5-3 victory over the National League July 15 in Minneapolis averaged 11.34 million viewers, a 3.5 percent increase over last year's game, whose average audience of 10.96 million was the game's second-smallest in prime time.

The All-Star Game had set record lows 10 of the past 18 years from 1995 through 2012. Fox Broadcasting has carried the game each year since 2001.

Viewership for most events have fallen over the past 25 years because of increased competition from cable television, watching recorded programming and online video and other leisure time activities including surfing the Internet and playing video games.

The record audience for the All-Star Game came in 1976, when an average of 36.33 million viewers watched ABC's coverage.

The second-most watched prime-time program July 14-20 aired opposite the All-Star Game in most of the nation, NBC's “America's Got Talent” which averaged 8.53 million viewers, according to live-plus-same-day figures released by Nielsen on Tuesday.

The audience was the smallest this summer for a Tuesday original episode of `America's Got Talent.” Each of this summer's previous five original Tuesday episodes averaged 11.14 million viewers.

Viewership for the second episode of CBS’ multi-faceted drama “Extant” dropped 16.9 percent from its premiere to 7.96 million, putting it third for the week, two spots lower than the premiere. Audiences for a series’ second episode are almost always lower than the premiere.

CBS had five of the seven prime-time programs to average more than 7 million viewers and was the most-watched network for the fifth consecutive week, averaging 5.36 million viewers.

Fox was second, averaging 4.52 million, followed by NBC, which averaged 4.5 million, and ABC, which averaged 4.08 million.

Fox was first among viewers ages 18-49, the group ABC, Fox and NBC target and advertisers covet because it watches less television and is harder to reach. The Spanish-language network Univision was second, with CBS and NBC tying for third.

The All-Star Game was the most-watched program among the group, followed by the Sunday and Thursday editions of CBS’ “Big Brother,” which were 11th and 15th overall.

Baseball was also responsible for the week's most-watched cable program, as ESPN's coverage of the Home Run Derby averaged 5.4 million viewers, 24th among the week's prime-time broadcast and cable programs.

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